Life as a Microsoft child & wife: No iPod or iPhone

Vogue’s latest issue has a thorough profile of Melinda Gates, wife of the Microsoft founder.

The story focuses mostly on her work with The Gates Foundation, but it also touches upon her courtship with Bill and her family life.

Michael Specter writes:

Still, being a Microsoft child does carry unusual burdens. “There are very few things that are on the banned list in our household,” Gates tells me. “But iPods and iPhones are two things we don’t get for our kids.” Harsh, perhaps, but understandable. After all, it’s hard to walk around tethered to merchandise made by your father’s most famous competitor.

Still, Gates acknowledges the inevitable lure of forbidden fruit. “Every now and then I look at my friends and say, ‘Ooh, I wouldn’t mind having that iPhone.’”

In other iPod news, President Obama gave the British Queen an iPod as a gift. Seattle-loyalist Monica Guzman on The Big Blog asks, “Why not a Zune?“